Researchers found 8% of Marie Curie patients died in hospital compared with two fifths of those who did not receive the service.

And only 12% of those who got the service were admitted to hospital as an emergency at the end of their lives, compared to over a third of patients who did not get home care.

The authors concluded: “These results offer evidence that home-based nursing care can reduce hospital use at the end of life, and help more people to die at home.”

Marie Curie Cancer Care chief executive Dr Jane Collins said: “Most people want to be cared for at home at the end of their lives and don’t want to spend their final days in hospital.

“We now have strong evidence to show just what a difference the Marie Curie Nursing Service care can make to fulfilling people’s last wishes.

"Unfortunately the provision of good quality of end-of-life care varies greatly and not everyone is able to access services.

“Our priority is to work with commissioners to ensure they understand the end of life need and provision in their area and redesign services to better support patients and families.

“It is only by ensuring that we get more people out of hospital and into more appropriate care that the Government will be able to meet the twin challenges of an ageing society and ongoing economic pressures.”

Nuffield Trust’s head of research Dr Martin Bardsley added: “In an increasingly tight financial climate for public services, we need to identify models of patient care that maintain or improve the quality and experience of care patients receive without large additional costs.

“The results of this evaluation offer clear evidence of the beneficial impacts of a commonly used package of home-based nursing care for people at the end of their lives.

"The research provides strong support for increased investment in this area and commissioners should consider these findings.”